the air in toronto today is pathetic.

[Kaidy Mae]

I don't have the info in front of me, but it's a common yearly complaint that a lot of the bad air comes from the States, specifically from the coal-burning power-plants in Ohio - which are also a main contributor to acid rain in Ontario.

The last I heard on the radio, 6 of the 8 power generators in southern Ontario were closed down due to striking Hydro One workers. The big voiced man on the radio told me not to worry though. We won't have any blackouts because we're importing power from (you guessed it) Ohio. [color:purple]Good to know that someone's got your back. Like our #1 concern was going to be whether we had no electricity and couldn't enjoy another rerun of CSI. :mad:

Do people forget that breathing can be really enjoyable too?

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

It was gross. I certinly did not pick teh best day to visit Toronto.

No doubt. Looks like today's going to be the same story. Our house has no circulation, either, which means I'll have to get out on my bike before long and find some place with a bit of air movement to work in. I've found a patio on Bloor St. that works well, but then you have to trade that off with the exhaust....

Besides the pollution element, though, I shouldn't complain, given that I really don't enjoy the winter and always beg for weather like this (yes, I am insane).

[Jaimoe]

Another thing to rememer is that it's freaking humid as hell, day after day, which keeps the pollutants near the city.

[can-o-phish]

Looking out the office window waiting for my client to show up and the sky is light yellow...FUG! And we're basically on Lake Ontario...

If you're working on a compooper like I am, be sure to SAVE SAVE SAVE as often as possible because these are the days that will cause power to cut out just as you're finishing something that you've spent hours, days and weeks on....don't want to start at square one again...

play safe if you're out in the sun...

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Like our #1 concern was going to be whether we had no electricity and couldn't enjoy another rerun of CSI. :mad:

Hear hear.

I remember when we were tooling around in India years back and would stay in villages where they would routinely shut off the power for two or three hours in the evening - it was such a relief, in real ways. People would get ready for it, bringing out candles, finding non-electrified ways to entertain themselves.... It was also very grounding, in reminding us of our dependence on the grid, and that it's possible to imagine living in independence of it.

[AD]

I don't have the info in front of me, but it's a common yearly complaint that a lot of the bad air comes from the States, specifically from the coal-burning power-plants in Ohio - which are also a main contributor to acid rain in Ontario.

There was a really interesting study released last week about point-source pollution over Ontario... They modelled all the major polluters in the states and Canada and found that (duh) Ontario was getting a lot of pollution from the States. Then they removed all the Ontario points and found that something like 80% (not the real number, but close) of Ontario's air pollution comes from Ohio and other great lakes states.

The flipside is that the same percentage of Maine and New Hampshire's pollution comes from Ontario / Quebec...

I wish I could remember who did the study though... I saw the story on CBC,.... maybe someone could search there for recent climate stories...

AD

[can-o-phish]

Actually, when the "lights went out" two summers ago, it was very damn cool...candles, impromptu street parties, people hanging out on patios and porches, guitars e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e...

very nice...

[AD]

Ah... Thank you Google. Here is the report I was talking about

AD

[AD]

Feck I'm crazy today... Here is a brief summary... The technical points in the main document are pretty cool though.

---------------

TORONTO -- The leader of Canada's most populous province said Monday Ontario is considering legal action against the U.S. government and American polluters in an effort to cut U.S. smog from coming into the province.

Premier Dalton McGuinty said they'll consider joining lawsuits already in progress against Washington and against big U.S. polluters.

"We're going to consider the possibility of joining some of the suits. There are over 50 lawsuits taking place in the U.S. at present. States suing the federal government, suing individual polluters and we've got to see where we can best apply our message," McGuinty said.

McGuinty made the comments at the Shared Air Summit 05, a one-day cross-border pollution conference of environmental experts and public officials

Ontario released a study Thursday showing that more than half of the air pollution hanging over Ontario comes from the U.S and costs Ontario $5.2 billion a year in health and environmental damage.

The study, based on 30 years of data and commissioned by the Ontario government, shows air pollution from both sides of the border costs the province $9.6 billion a year; 55 percent of those costs can be blamed on American smog, it estimates.

McGuinty invited a number of U.S. governors to the summit, but none came. New York Gov. George Pataki sent a taped message.

"I extended an invitation to a number of U.S. governors. I wasn't expecting to turn the world upside down over night," McGuinty said. "This is the first shared air summit, but I do hope we create a critical mass of people who are committed to resolving this in an intelligent way."

McGuinty said U.S. and Canadian efforts to clean up water quality in the Great Lakes can serve as a template for co-operation in tackling air pollution.

McGuinty said he is forming a shared-air round-table to provide advice.

He acknowledged Ontario contributes to smog over New York state, New Hampshire and Vermont. Despite an election promise to close the province's four coal-burning generating stations by 2007, Ontario is closing three by that date. Nanticoke, the province's worst polluter, will close in 2009.

"Obviously, if we want to have any moral standing before any international tribunal or before any court, we have to clean up our own act," McGuinty said.

Ontario warns court action possible to cut U.S. smog coming into Ontario

[Jaimoe]

Smog's one thing. Let's hope that the U.S. won't be allowed to create a water route/channel from Lake Ontario to the central U.S. in order to quench their enormous thirst.

[AD]

You know of the Devil's Lake project in North Dakota?

North Dakota is gonna divert millions upon millions of gallons of polluted water into the Sheyenne River and eventually Lake Winnipeg. New parasites and pollution will then have irreversible effects in Canada, when the pollution comes ONLY from the States. North Dakota is racing to get the project done, because Manitoba's only argument is that the project will introduce parasites and pollution into the river. If North Dakota can open the diversion before an agreement is reached, Manitoba's point is moot.

Bastards.

AD

[Jaimoe]

I'm following that story closely.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Hey, Manifest Destiny, right?

[can-o-phish]

Yep, definitely bastards but there's probably some fat cats on our side of the border that will be lining their pockets because of this "Devil's Lake" deal...

[Large Marge]

[color:purple]Hope you all enjoyed Environment week and Clean Air Day this month!

[color:green]Doctors: Smog Will Kill 5,800 Ontarians This Year

From the Ontario Medical Association website:

Toronto, June 14, 2005 - Air pollution in Ontario will result in almost 5,800 premature deaths this year and cost the province almost a billion dollars, according to the latest report from the Ontario Medical Association (OMA).

The report, Illness Cost of Air Pollution 2005, shows that if the province does not take action to further improve the quality of air in Ontario, the number of premature deaths associated with air pollution is estimated to hit a staggering 10,000 lives by the year 2026. The combined healthcare and lost productivity costs are expected to reach well over a billion dollars.

If you want to help stop the madness, you could easily copy some of these complaints to your elected leaders. Shoot a quick email to Mayor Miller (mayor_miller@toronto.ca) and demand that there be free public transit on smog days, or fire one off to Dwight Duncan or directly to McGuinty (Dalton.McGuinty@premier.gov.on.ca) and tell them to please get there heads out of there asses on the phase-out of the Nanticoke coal-fired power plant and their continued advocacy for fleets of SUVs to be utilized by public offices.

There are lots of "Clean Air" campaigns based in Toronto, including the Sierra Club's Car Free Day Campaign which i have been active on for a number of years now. Check out our site, if you've got time and let me know if you'd like to become more involved. To paraphrase Ghandi, it's up to each of us to be the change we want to see.

Cheers! Try not to melt out there!

[Large Marge]

Here it is...

Car Free Day Canada

[SmoothedShredder]

This air sucks. Montreal: Lots less SUV's... gas $0.20 more a litre. I'd like to see gas prices triple... seriously... it's the only way to force people to realize the cost of all this frivilous driving.

Breads way too inexpensive. We take it for granted... it's the govenment bullshit which allows the computer industry to create another inferior product after another. We waste gas in an exponential rate. And we're so determined to do it, we are willing to kill people half way around the world to have some control of it's price in our domestic market (more the States, but Canadians ain't so innocent either).

Anyways... just want to get that off of, and out of my chest... stupid Toronto air.

~W

[Schwa.]

USA = number 1 oil consumer in world....300 million people

China = number 2 oil consumer in world....1 billion+ people.

Feeling entitled ain't the word (although I'm not sure what is)

[MamaPink]

yeah, now let's all go out and buy a freakin' HUMMER. Grrrrrrr... not only are they terrible for the environement, the stupid ladies who drive them can't stay in their own fricken lanes.

I HATE HUMMERS!!!!!

[Calamity Jane]

what??? LMP posted a whole 40 minutes ago and none of you boys are gonna come in on the pun "I hate hummers!"

how disappointing.

where the hell is lazlo?

[SaggyBalls]

let's all go out and buy a freakin' HUMMER

no no no...just find a trashy slut and save your $20.

the air is mighty fine here in Vancouver. no complaints from me. sorry to hear you're being polluted.

[Calamity Jane]

let's all go out and buy a freakin' HUMMER

no no no...just find a trashy slut and save your $20.

thanks CB...I knew someone had it in 'em!!!

sorry to hear you're being polluted.

Now isn't that a euphemism for whacking off becuase you couldn't find the trashy slut?

[onthejourney]

ya this air really sux. I think I actually get 'summer asthma' from it or something. So hard to breathe and I got a cough and I stuffy nose. Sometimes I actually gag...lovely, I know.

Today when I went to pick up Kev from work there was this chick sitting in her car, just idling away. By the time he came out it was probably already 3 minutes or so. So anyways, she was yakkin through her window to some guys from Y108, so I said 'excuse me' to those guys and ask them to ask her to stop idling her car because it is contributing unnecessary pollution to the air I breathe. Needless to say they looked at me like I was on crack or something. I find alot of people respond with something such as "well, it is only for a minute or 2". But if you think about if even just 100 cars did that for a minute or 2 a day, that's a lot of idling....and we all know that way more cars than that idle in parking lots and else where, unnecessarily each day.

I makes me really mad when everyone complains about the air and then they do that...grrr

[timouse]

ok, today on the highway i could actually see "stuff" in the air.

i'm scared.

and otj, most municipalities iin ontario have an anti-idling bylaw, i think the limit is 3 minutes, might be 2 in some places. not that it actually gets enforced...sorry, my cynical side is showing

[Calamity Jane]

What the HELL are we doing to the planet???

another "43" degrees today. This is seriousyy whacked. What's everyone doing to keep cool? Seems like I can't get enough ice water!

I was literally driven out of my senses today by the heat and took my daughters to a MALL (with a Mal*Wart, no less!) just for some A/C. But after the first blast, one's body seems to adjust and there also seems to be no way to keep the humidity at bay.

Usually hot summer days cool down into pleasantly cool summer nights...I don't think we've had any of those!!!

anyone know the city of TO pool hotline...last summer they kept some pools open til midnight in extreme heat like today.